Wire grip and lock.



D. J. WINN.

WIRE GRIP AND LOCK.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.16, 191s.

Patented May 5, 1914.

DAVID JAMES WINN, OF SUMTER, SOUTH CAROLINA.

WIRE GRIP AND LOCK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 16, 1913. Serial No. 807,056.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, DAVID JAMES VVINN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sumter, in the county of Sumter and State of South Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in W'ire Grips and Locks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is in the nature of a novel wire grip and lock, somewhat in the nature of a buckle, and designed to cooperate with and secure the ends of a wire bale tie, or to grip and hold under tension a strand of wire for wire fences, telegraph lines, &c.

It is an improvement upon the device shown in my prior application for patent filed May 24:, 1913, Serial No. 7 69,637 and it consists in the novel construction and arrangement of such wire grip and lock designed to make it more secure against accidental disengagement, as will be hereinafter more fully described with reference to the drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the Wire grip and lock. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same, showing it applied to a bale wire, Figs. 2 and 2 are cross sections of two different forms of rings, and Fig. 3 is a plan view of the device shown applied as a grip to hold and stretch under tension a fence wire or telegraph wire.

In the drawing A represents a plain metal ring of smooth, uniform cross section and continuous curvature forming a ring of circular form and uniform diameter. The ring may be either of round cross section, as seen in Fig. 2 or flat cross section, as in Fig. 2 which latter may be stamped out of plate metal. The ring may also be oval, if desired.

B is the gripping and locking bar, which is made of one piece of heavy wire of somewhat smaller cross section than the ring. This bar at one end is bent around to form an elongated loop G, which incloses one side of the ring and whose extreme end is turned up at c to contact with the middle portion of the bar, and whose other end is turned down at D in the same direction from the body of the bar as the loop C. This bar B is of somewhat greater length than the diameter of the ring itself, and when the ring is in the outer end of the loop C the other end D hooks over and around the outer periphery of the other side of the ring and extends across the plane of the same, so that said bar cannot slide back longitudinally across the ring until said bar is lifted away from the plane of the ring by a radial movement to an angular position which permits the downwardly bent end D to escape from its locked position against the ring, which locked position is maintained by the tension of the wire to be gripped and locked which passes over the bar B and under the ring.

In Fig. 2 the wire grip and lock is shown applied to a wire tie for inclosing a bale of cotton, hay or other material. In. such case one end of the wire tie F is looped around the ring A and twisted. The other end is carried under the ring A, then over thebar B and again under the ring and the end twisted. Now, when tension is brought upon the wire tie it will be seen that it looks and holds the bar B down against the ring so that its bent end D is hooked around the outside of the ring and the bar cannot accidentally be moved back longitudinally to release the lock. hen, however, the tie is to be removed, the bar B is pried upwardly, with any tool, until the end D is lifted above the plane of the ring and then the bar may be driven longitudinally backward by reason of the elongated loop C until its drops inside the ring and the loop of the tie wire E slips off of the same. It will be seen that there is no cutting of the bale wire, the buckle is never detached from the wire, and, therefore, cannot accidentally get into the cotton gin and the tie wire and its buckle may be kept together and saved for reuse indefinitely, thus making a great saving in bale ties and also avoiding disastrous fires in the gin house.

Another application of my invention is shown in Fig. 3, where it is applied for the purpose of putting a tension on a straight strand of wire G, as in putting up wire fences, or stretching telegraph and telephone wires. In this case the wire crosses the bar B at right angles and in applying it a little bend or crimp b is put in the wire G to allow the bar B to he slipped under it and then when tension is put upon the wire G its crimp at Z) engages the bar B and prevents its end D from becoming unlocked, so that the bar cannot slip back and the frictional contact of this crimp against the bar and the contact of the wire against the under side of the ring at two diametrical places produces such a grip that a pull applied to the ring A in the direction of the arrow will Patented May 5, 1914.

grip the wire and allow the necessary tension to be applied to the same. This pull may be applied in any suitable manner, as by a rope, a book, a link or lever or any other Well known hitch.

The device as thus described is a very simple, cheap and practical one, and free from the difficulties heretofore encountered. It will be seen that by bending the end 0 of the 100]) C up to abutting contact against the middle oi the under side of the bar B this greatly strengthens and reinforces the bar against being bent downwardly under the tension of the wire to be secured.

I claim:

1. A wire grip and lock comprising a plain ring and a diametrical crossbar having one end bent around on itself and inclosing the ring with. an elongated loop, and the other end of said bar being bent to eX- tend across the plane of the ring to lock around the opposite side of the ring and form a lock against the longitudinal move ment of the bar.

2. A wire grip and lock comprising a plain ring and a diametrical crossbar having one end bent around on itself and inclosing the ring with an elongated loop,

and the other end of said bar being bent to extend across the plane of the ring to look around the opposite side of the ring and form a lock against the longitudinal movement of the bar, the end of the elongated loop being turned up to abutting contact with the middle of the body portion of the bar to strengthen the same.

3. A wire grip and lock comprising a plain ring and a diametrical crossbar having one end bent around on itself and inclosing the ring with an elongated loop, and the other end of said bar being bent to extend across the plane of the ring to look around the opposite side of the ring and form a lock against the longitudinal movement of the bar, the end of the elongated loop being turned up to abutting contact with the middle of the body portion of the bar to strengthen the same, and the hooked end of the bar being bent to the same side of the body portion as the elongated loop.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

DAVID JAMES WVINN.

Witnesses A. M. BROUGHTON, S. M. MoLEoD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. U. 

